Ground Report

We hope that our journalist community will avail this opportunty to talk to this international expert on this very important issue.

 

While Professor Akhavan is in Dhaka, before he leaves town, the best thing would be if the Dhaka Reporters Unity arranges a Meet The Press event dedicated to the War Crimes issue. We hope that both the government and the media will seriously consider this.

 

Here are some excerpts on McGill Law Professor Payam Akhavan, who is currently visitng Dhaka as an observer.

 

Link1: http://efchr.mcgill.ca/ConferenceOrganisers_en.php?menu=14

 

 

Payam Akhavan
Professor of Law, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism

Professor Payam Akhavan was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor Office of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and played a key role in the development of its foundational jurisprudence. He also has considerable experience in post-conflict peace-building and international dispute settlement, having advised the UN on transitional justice, appearing as counsel before international courts and tribunals on behalf of sovereigns, and serving on the board of directors of human rights NGOs, including the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre in New Haven, of which he is also the president and co-founder. His work has been featured in the New York Times and, in recognition of his contributions to promoting accountability for human rights violations, he was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2005.

Link2: http://people.mcgill.ca/payam.akhavan/

Biography

Professor Akhavan teaches and researches in the areas of public international law, international criminal law and transitional justice, with a particular interest in human rights and multiculturalism, war crimes prosecutions, UN reform and the prevention of genocide.

He was previously the Boulton Senior Fellow at McGill, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and Visiting Lecturer and Senior Fellow at Yale Law School and the Yale University Centre for International and Area Studies. He has published extensively including "Beyond Impunity: Can International Criminal Justice Prevent Future Atrocities?" (2001) 95 American Journal of International Law 7 (www.asil.org/ajil/recon2.pdf) selected by the International Library of Law and Legal Theory as one of "the most significant published journal essays in contemporary legal studies." He is also the author of the Report on the Work of the Office of the Special Advisor of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide (2005).

Professor Akhavan was the first Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and played a key role in the development of its foundational jurisprudence. He also has considerable experience in post-conflict peace-building and international dispute settlement, having advised the UN on transitional justice, appearing as counsel before international courts and tribunals on behalf of sovereigns, and serving on the board of directors of human rights NGOs, including the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre ( www.iranhrdc.org), in New Haven, of which he is also the president and co-founder. His work has been featured in the New York Times and, in recognition of his contributions to promoting accountability for human rights violations, he was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader (www.younggloballeaders.org) in 2005.

If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columinsts in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence. 
 
Innovation Line